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Dear @gerard_coyne: with whom did you ‘agree’ Labour data use?

As the SKWAWKBOX covered this morning, Gerard Coyne admitted on national radio that he and his campaign had used Labour Party data as part of their campaign for the Unite union leadership.

His glib claim that it was ‘all agreed’ missed the whole point of the Data Protection Act (DPA) by a country mile – only the person whose data is held has the right to ‘agree’ to its use by a 3rd party. But then again, Coyne has been emailing and texting people who aren’t even in Unite, so the competence bar is set as low as the tone of his campaign.

The BBC interviewer did not press Mr Coyne on the issue, which was an inexcusable omission. However, Coyne’s admission also raises another very important question:

With whom did was it agreed?

Nobody in the Labour Party has the legal right to agree to any such thing and I’m sure the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) will want to know. So the SKWAWKBOX has asked Coyne the question:

By all means feel free to share this and ask him yourself.

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